"Fetishizing the dropout"? The Thiel Fellowship, which awards $100k grants to young recipients who "stop out" of higher education and take a stab at business.
"The classic form of the American Dream stipulates that, with hard work and a good education, people in the U.S. can achieve prosperity regardless of race or socioeconomic standing. But as soaring higher education costs and crippling student loan debt have threatened this ideal, a new, alluring, and college-free version of the narrative has emerged. According to this story, success is not necessarily tied up in education, but rather can be won through innovation and entrepreneurship. And nowhere is this narrative better exemplified than in the annual Thiel Fellowship, a philanthropic creation of billionaire PayPal founder Peter Thiel that grants $100,000 to 20-odd people under age 20 on the condition that they “stop out” of school for two years and pursue a business venture instead." -- Alison Griswold, Slate.com
